Your Right to Know

WASHINGTON — Two U.S. House members are asking the Government Accountability Office to
investigate the Department of Energy’s support for the company that wants to build a
uranium-enrichment plant in southern Ohio.

In their letter, Reps. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Michael Burgess, R-Texas, argue that USEC, the
Maryland-based company planning to build the plant in Piketon, Ohio, cannot stay afloat without
federal help and is relying on Department of Energy “bailouts” to remain solvent. The two refer
specifically to a January agency decision to assume $44 million of USEC’s liability for its uranium
tails — a byproduct of enriched uranium that can be used to produce more enriched uranium.

The two lawmakers cite USEC’s recent credit downgrading and technical problems that occurred
last year as reasons why the federal government might be investing in a technology that might never
be ready for commercial use.

For three years, USEC has sought $2 billion in federal-loan guarantees, but the Energy
Department has argued that the technology is not ready for commercialization. The department is
banking on Congress’ approving $150 million for research and development at the Piketon plant so
USEC can make the technology ready for commercialization.

The company says that, by commercializing technology at Piketon’s proposed American Centrifuge
Project, it’d be providing much-needed enriched uranium for nuclear power plants from a U.S.-owned
company and that the project would create jobs in an economically depressed region of southern
Ohio.

But Markey said the costs to taxpayers might outweigh the benefits.

“We’ve been told this earmark is all about avoiding risk to our national security, but the real
risks of this nuclear bailout is for taxpayers who will be on the hook for questionable government
handouts that are worth more than the entire company,” Markey said in a release announcing the
letter.

Markey and Burgess want the GAO to investigate whether the Piketon program is required to
fulfill a national-security need. USEC and the Department of Energy have argued that the Piketon
plant is the only way the U.S. can get the tritium needed for America’s nuclear-weapons program.
Markey, citing reports from the Congressional Research Service, said that’s untrue.

Markey and Burgess also want the GAO to investigate whether the $44 million tails transfer
violates federal law by endangering the domestic uranium-mining industry.

Finally, they’ve asked the GAO to look into whether the Department of Energy and USEC are out of
compliance with other statutes, including the National Environmental Policy Act and National
Historic Preservation Act. Markey said Democratic staff for the House Natural Resources Committee
has been told that neither federal law is being appropriately complied with as the process moves
forward.